Transport Canada orders 5,000 tanker cars off the rail system
Transport Canada has announced new regulations tightening safety on Canada’s railways, beginning with ordering the 5,000 most dangerous tanker cars off the rails.
The new rules also cover speed limits, route assessments, emergency response plans and the phasing over of tens of thousands of dangerous railcars.
Transport Minister Lisa Raitt announced the moves Wednesday, accepting major safety recommendations of the Transportation SafetyBoard following last summer’s tragedy in Lac-Megantic, Que., in which a train carrying 113,000 litres of crude oil derailed, exploded and killed 47 people.
About 5,000 DOT-111 tanker cars are to be removed from Canadian railways within 30 days. Another 65,000 DOT-111 cars must be removed or retrofitted within three years, a timeframe rail industry experts are calling “ambitious.”
The measures didn’t fully satisfy NDP leader Tom Muclair. “What happens in the meantime in all those communities where this very dangerous material is being transported today?” he asked. “You can’t tell us you know that they’re dangerous and yet you’re going to continue to allow them to roll through these communities.”
Raitt said, however, that the DOT-111 cars are just one of several risk factors contributing to rail crashes. “There’s not just one aspect in mitigating risks, there’s many.”
She said even more important than replacing DOT-111 cars, was to keep cars from derailing in the first place.
Effective immediately, Transport Canada will conduct risk assessments of routes where dangerous goods are transported, and establish speed limits of 50 miles per hour or less in areas that are built up or near drinking water.
Fundamentally, “the system is safe; we’re trying to make it safer,” said Raitt.
Transport Canada is also stiffening the regulations that govern how rail industries pre-emptively prepare for accidents when transporting dangerous goods that require special expertise and response equipment.
Emergency Response Assistance Plans have only been required for trains carrying refined fuels such as gasoline and diesel. But under the new regulations, if even a single tanker is carrying any flammable liquid, such as crude oil, such a plan is now required.
Raitt did not give the cost of making these changes, but said industry, not taxpayers, would foot the bill.
“The prime minister was very clear in the speech from the throne about the principle that ‘the polluter pays’ is very important and that we want to ensure that we have a robust liability and compensation scheme in place so that the taxpayer is not the one who at the end of the day is hung for actions attributable to industry,” said Raitt.
But others said the costs would eventually hit consumers.
Some also raised concern about how the three-year-plan might complicate trade between Canada and the U.S., which is expected to take up to 10 years to phase out its DOT-111 cars.
Asked if there is a possibility that DOT-111 cars entering Canada from the U.S. will be held up at the border, Raitt said industry has more than enough time to prepare for the 2017 deadline.
“Canada can make regulations – that’s the bare minimum of what you should be doing – industry knows where this is going, industry already is making tank cars that are actually superlative to what we’ve put in our regulations because they can see where this is going and quite frankly, industry wants to do things safely because they have a reputation to uphold.”
According to documents from Transport Canada, the rail industry is already building new tank cars and approximately 50,000 have already been ordered — a number equivalent to nearly half of North America’s DOT-111 tanker fleet.
Since 2004, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada has recorded 12,265 federally regulated railway accidents by train.
Here’s a summary of what Transport Canada did Wednesday:
- Issued a directive to remove the least crash-resistant DOT-111 tank cars from dangerous goods service;
- Required DOT-111 tank cars used to transport crude oil and ethanol that do not meet standards to be phased out or refitted within three years;
- Ordered Emergency Response Assistance Plans for transportation of crude oil, gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel, and ethanol;
- Required railway companies to reduce the speed of trains carrying dangerous goods and implement other related operating practices.
The new rules also cover speed limits, route assessments, emergency response plans and the phasing over of tens of thousands of dangerous railcars.
Transport Minister Lisa Raitt announced the moves Wednesday, accepting major safety recommendations of the Transportation SafetyBoard following last summer’s tragedy in Lac-Megantic, Que., in which a train carrying 113,000 litres of crude oil derailed, exploded and killed 47 people.
About 5,000 DOT-111 tanker cars are to be removed from Canadian railways within 30 days. Another 65,000 DOT-111 cars must be removed or retrofitted within three years, a timeframe rail industry experts are calling “ambitious.”
The measures didn’t fully satisfy NDP leader Tom Muclair. “What happens in the meantime in all those communities where this very dangerous material is being transported today?” he asked. “You can’t tell us you know that they’re dangerous and yet you’re going to continue to allow them to roll through these communities.”
Raitt said, however, that the DOT-111 cars are just one of several risk factors contributing to rail crashes. “There’s not just one aspect in mitigating risks, there’s many.”
She said even more important than replacing DOT-111 cars, was to keep cars from derailing in the first place.
Effective immediately, Transport Canada will conduct risk assessments of routes where dangerous goods are transported, and establish speed limits of 50 miles per hour or less in areas that are built up or near drinking water.
Fundamentally, “the system is safe; we’re trying to make it safer,” said Raitt.
Transport Canada is also stiffening the regulations that govern how rail industries pre-emptively prepare for accidents when transporting dangerous goods that require special expertise and response equipment.
Emergency Response Assistance Plans have only been required for trains carrying refined fuels such as gasoline and diesel. But under the new regulations, if even a single tanker is carrying any flammable liquid, such as crude oil, such a plan is now required.
Raitt did not give the cost of making these changes, but said industry, not taxpayers, would foot the bill.
“The prime minister was very clear in the speech from the throne about the principle that ‘the polluter pays’ is very important and that we want to ensure that we have a robust liability and compensation scheme in place so that the taxpayer is not the one who at the end of the day is hung for actions attributable to industry,” said Raitt.
But others said the costs would eventually hit consumers.
Some also raised concern about how the three-year-plan might complicate trade between Canada and the U.S., which is expected to take up to 10 years to phase out its DOT-111 cars.
Asked if there is a possibility that DOT-111 cars entering Canada from the U.S. will be held up at the border, Raitt said industry has more than enough time to prepare for the 2017 deadline.
“Canada can make regulations – that’s the bare minimum of what you should be doing – industry knows where this is going, industry already is making tank cars that are actually superlative to what we’ve put in our regulations because they can see where this is going and quite frankly, industry wants to do things safely because they have a reputation to uphold.”
According to documents from Transport Canada, the rail industry is already building new tank cars and approximately 50,000 have already been ordered — a number equivalent to nearly half of North America’s DOT-111 tanker fleet.
Since 2004, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada has recorded 12,265 federally regulated railway accidents by train.
Here’s a summary of what Transport Canada did Wednesday:
- Issued a directive to remove the least crash-resistant DOT-111 tank cars from dangerous goods service;
- Required DOT-111 tank cars used to transport crude oil and ethanol that do not meet standards to be phased out or refitted within three years;
- Ordered Emergency Response Assistance Plans for transportation of crude oil, gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel, and ethanol;
- Required railway companies to reduce the speed of trains carrying dangerous goods and implement other related operating practices.
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